Take the Motivations Assessment

The Motivations Assessment is a survey consisting of 39 multiple-choice questions. At the end of the assessment, your percentile ranks in the 10 motivation subcomponents against a sample of 3200 respondents are shown in several graphs. Information on how this assessment was developed can be found in this article.

I find myself torn on many of the questions relating to grouping, relationships, etc. I prefer to group, but only with people I already know. I don't enjoy grouping with other players that I don't already know. I like chatting with the players I already know. I don't like chatting with players I don't already know, etc.

Posted by: Jeff Freeman on March 15, 2005 2:33 PM

I've played WoW for a few months now and I find I feel really good whenever I help a fellow player. I started as a paladin and when I created a new warrior character I felt like I was letting people down when I remembered I couldn't heal them or shield them from damage with my new character. I remember a few different groups I was in that I really felt bad if a group-mate died before me. In WoW I don't mind running back to my corpse but I felt other people might, so, when I could I would do my best to get the enemy to target me so my friends could live.

Posted by: Tim Ruzzo on March 17, 2005 1:23 PM

I found some of the groupings to be misleading (as you pointed out) because I am high social, but hate teaming and I am high immersion but don't roleplay so I look average in these two categories.

Tim, you are a true support class who would probably make an awesome healer class in most games.

Posted by: Sychotic1 on March 17, 2005 3:18 PM

I found it difficult to answer many of the questions, as the "game" I play is Second Life, and most of the questions aren't applicable. (There are no "levels," e.g.)

Have you done a factor analysis on the data from this and the previous questionnaire? I'm wondering how the categories you collapse to are supported by the empirical data.

Two comments on the navigation: at the end of the survey, it should be possible to save the results (e.g. email them), and there should also be links to go back to the entry page and the main site.

Posted by: neko on August 3, 2005 12:37 PM

Neko - The assessment isn't meant for social environments like Second Life though ... It was designed with MMORPGs in mind.

I was shocked at how accurate this is. I took the test, and it gave me a 29 % in Achievement, but 100% and 99% ratings in Socializing and Immersion respectfully. I've had the same character since the game started, and still only level 43 out of a level cap of 60. I spend a LOT of my time roleplaying with my guild.

Posted by: Joshua Hutcheson on December 28, 2005 6:21 PM

This was suprisingly accurate. Scored 96% on achievement, 51% on socializing, and 9% on immersion.

Suits my playstyle, highly addicted to the teamwork competition element within the game (raids) and the only reason socializing is at 51% is because i scored 86% on teamwork in that subcategory.

Posted by: Fortune on October 26, 2007 6:03 AM

I found that while the results were somewhat accurate it seems to have misconstrued some of my answers. Just because I like having a strong and well thought out character doesn't mean I'm competitive. Also I found the customisation questions weak, customisation isn't all about visual appearance.

Likewise I value immersiveness of a game highly, but unlike the test I don't feel that role playing is an aid to making a game immersive. I play as me, and I act as such, you could say I role play myself.

I also feel escapism is a worthless metric, you always play games to escape something. Whenever you change what you are doing by choice you do it to escape the last activity, be it out of boredom or otherwise. If I read a book its because I was sick of what I was doing before.

While the test was very intesting, I couldn't help but feel it was correlating competition to tightly to strenght.

If I was to describe how I play a typical RPG, I'm a collector, I like to have all the items, but will only go so far as I won't do something that isn't fun for very long.

Posted by: TSPhoenix on January 6, 2008 8:20 PM

I think the teamwork section needs a bit of work.

I love teamwork when I choose to work in a team, but I hate being forced into teams by silly game mechanics and poorly thought out game design, and I think that's not properly reflected in the questions posed here.

I like working towards goals in a team, but as an explorer I like discovering the world for myself.

For example, I'd much rather play a game of Team Slayer or King of the Hill in Halo3 than play a regular Slayer match. I don't need to discover the world (or already have) so I choose to team up.

Posted by: Funky J on February 2, 2008 11:26 PM

I don't think being a griefer is a sign of a competitive spirit. One can be competitive without dragging down the experience for other people. If I have a one-on-one with someone, and I win, I would be just as competitive if I said 'Good one!' as if I said 'GG nub'.

Posted by: TTM on February 18, 2008 4:27 PM

Most of the questions are worded appropriately, but I doubt that many people would admit to deliberately irritating people. I put seldom because when someone attacks me I do go out of my way to annoy them.

A few of the questions which have a negative socialization theme could be worded, or split, to make provisions for well-placed appropriate responses to the consequences of being a mean/hateful person.

Posted by: on August 5, 2008 11:13 AM

I scored 56% on Achievement and 44% on Immersion.

My Socializing rank may be zero, but it's only because I play World of Warcraft and believe that teamwork in this MMORPG isn't satisfying or rewarding enough. I'm quite a casual player, so it may be some time before I level up enough for raids, guilds, etc. to become important. I'm seriously considering trying another MMORPG for this reason, and then re-taking the assesment.

What I mean is that player's motivations can sometimes be greatly affected by the rules and mechanics of the game they play.

Posted by: on September 23, 2008 6:09 AM

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